Dear Editor,
Devindra Bishoo richly deserved the ICC’s coveted ‘Emerging Player of the Year’ prize and it is rewarding that he was given it. It is often argued that discipline and fighting spirit are the two essential qualities in any sporting exercise if one is to come out on top. Even against the backdrop of the greatest decline in West Indies cricket with the most pathetic performances, especially in the recent World Cup, Bishoo was able to stand tall against his more established colleagues.
Bishoo made his international debut against England in the World Cup match at Chennai in March. Batting first, England looked well set for a big total at 119 for 2, scoring freely at a 100 per cent strike rate, when Bishoo was trusted with the ball with Jonathon Trott and Ian Bell scoring freely. Bishoo deceived Trott with a turning delivery as he spooned a catch to short midwicket for a well played 47 in 38 deliveries. Trott incidentally was the ICC Player of the Year in 2001. In this his debut match on the world stage Bishoo took three wickets for thirty-seven in his allotted ten overs, as England went down for 243. The dismal batting performance especially by the highly publicized ‘superstars’ and the West Indies’ exit from the World Cup is now history, but Bishoo continued to impress.
West Indies cricket was rocked by controversies before the Pakistan/India Test series began; however, Bishoo was once again able to lift his performance and game to the highest level. Despite his success with the ball no one can forget his last wicket stand of over forty runs, a partnership in which he out-scored West Indies batting star Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the second innings of the first Test against Pakistan at the Providence Stadium, Guyana. In a low scoring match this partnership played a crucial role in the West Indies victory.
Bishoo’s fielding was superb, in stark contrast to some of his team mates who looked lethargic at times. Bishoo’s catching, accurate throwing to the wicket and sprinting movements were hallmarks of his fielding. However, the most memorable catch was a full-blooded plunge with feet in the air to take Harbhagan Singh off Fidel Edwards. It was described as a “blinder” by commentators at Sabina Park. Even though India’s Rahul Dravid, VVS Latchman and Mahindra Singh Dhoni are considered some of the world’s best batsmen of spin, Bishoo troubled them constantly throughout the series and regularly accounted for their wickets. Moreover, Bishoo was consistent in both the Test matches and the ODI series.
Bishoo is expected to follow in the tradition of great cricketers that hailed from the Albion-Port Mourant Sugar Estate, that was at one time responsible for producing six top-class players in the Guyana team in 1956 under the leadership of Clyde Walcott. Clem Seecharan’s book Sweetening Bitter Sugar attributed the rise of this talent and cricketing skill to the quality of the cricket grounds in the sugar estates. He pointed out that Administrative Manager JC Gibson created and built the first cricket club and ground in Port Mourant and gave it to the workers to manage in the 1920s, which they did successfully. It was a cricket ground that I had fond memories of in my boyhood days in the ’70s until it was taken over and run down by an incompetent and inept hand-picked local government. Tony Cozier bemoans the fact that the poor quality of batsmen today is very much the result of the poor quality of cricket pitches in the West Indies. One is left to wonder after a legacy of great batsmen of the likes of Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Roy Fredericks, Basil Butcher, Alvin Kallicharan – and the list goes on – it is not a shame that no Guyanese scored a century in the regional tournament this year.
In conclusion, it is my considered view that even though the crisis in West Indies and moreso Guyana cricket is bad news, it will open up new opportunities for changes where good will finally can be triumphant. The legendary Sunil Gavaskar held a widely shared view that Bishoo would be the trump card for a reinvigorated West Indies team in the future. The Economist (May 28, 2011) pointed out that spin bowlers are the game’s greatest revolutionaries with mysterious lexicons – googlies, chinamen, and flippers doosras – suggesting constant innovation. Some six decades ago Sonny Ramadhin mastered the art of wrist spin bowling, and along with Valentine powered the West Indies to the summit of world cricket. It was pleasing to hear Bishoo in accepting the ICC award saying that he was willing to learn, an indication that once he has mastered the art of spin bowling the best is yet to come from this talented cricketer.
Yours faithfully,
Rajendra Rampersaud
